Wikileaks gets banking data from Swiss accounts

David Gomez, 18th January 2011

A former Swiss banker has handed over the data from 2,000 accounts to Wikileaks head Julian Assange. The accounts supposedly belong to powerful, well-known people.

According to The Guardian, Swiss whistleblower Rudolf Elmer said that he was going to do it on Sunday, and earlier today at a press conference he handed over the hard drives to Assange. He is also due to go on trial for breaking bank secrecy laws this Wednesday.

Elmer is the former chief operating officer in the Cayman Islands for Swiss bank Julies Baer. According to Euronews, Elmer said that the data includes the offshore accounts of 40 politicians from around the world.

Here’s his quote from Euronews: “I was close to giving up. A friend of mine told me ‘There is WikiLeaks’. I looked at it and made contact. That’s the only hope I have to get the society to know what is going on,” he said.

Elmer said that after he decided to publish the information he was imprisoned and offered cash in exchange for his silence.

Assange said on Euronews that he expects the banks to put up a fight: “We have had more legal threats and attempted lawsuits by banks than any other organizations. None have been successful and I do not expect them to be successful in the future.”

Wikileaks says that they will make the information public once the information has been analyzed.